The first official Boys Empowerment
Conference in Iringa Region Tanzania happened this year the week after Thanksgiving.
If you notice a peculiar upswing in your mood (or possibly your
libido) that week its likely it was due to the psychic energy of the
forty teenage boys we crowded into a small conference room in a
Catholic Mission just outside of Mafinga to talk about HIV/AIDS,
alcohol and drugs, fatherhood , gender versus sex, gender roles,
condoms, masturbation and of course girls, girls, girls, girls!
It was our second gender empowerment
conference in the region (Girl's Empowerment happened in June) and so
of course it was a study in contrasts. The essentials were still
there: a talent show (including a skit that could have been a three
act opera and half a dozen rap songs), opening and closing speeches,
certificates of completion,
sports and games, and a question and answer session that covered a
shocking amount of ground. But in a lot of ways it was really different.
The Girls Conference was an amazing,
transformative, near-spiritual experience that culminated in a dance
party the likes of which will never be seen again. It was also the
logistical equivalent of a week-long game of a whack-a-mole. I am
happy to say that Peace Corps volunteers are pretty quick studies
though. Boy's conference was exhausting, but it wasn't quite the mad
dash we all knew it could have easily been. We also moved away from
having a lot of guest speakers and let our Tanzanian “Counter
Parts,” the friends and colleagues we brought with us from our
village do most of the heavy lifting.
But of course the biggest difference,
no matter how much we talk about gender equality, was that we were
dealing with boys and not girls. Tanzanian boys have a wonderful
assertiveness and confidence. Not to say that the girls don't have it
at all but they don't have it in the metric tons, cartloads, bushels and barrels like the boys do. The boys have machismo, panache and the ability to ask the question “how much masturbation
is too much masturbation?” with a completely straight face. It's impossible not to love them for it.
Enjoy some pics below:
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| Maxing and relaxing outside after a hard day's condom demonstration. |
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| Can you name all the parts of the penis? In Swahili? These boys can. |
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| The whole gang! |
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